England smash records in Test form turnaround
England smash records in Test form turnaround. We break into the data to find just how impressive England’s recent run has been in Test matches.
There has been a winning streak for the England men’s Test squad at home, with four straight victories (one against India and three against New Zealand).
In recent games, England has set a number of records thanks to their ability to successfully chase down runs in the bottom of the fourth inning.
A dream run chase
In the fifth and deciding Test match, England chased down India’s total of 378 to earn a 2-2 series draw and 12 points in the ICC World Test Championship.
England’s successful chase of 359 against Australia in Leeds in the 2019 Ashes is the highest in Test history.
Prior to Australia’s 339 in Perth’s historic WACA ground in 1977, no team had ever chased a target in excess of 350 against India in Tests.
Not only is this the eighth-highest chase in Test cricket, but it is also the second-highest chase on English soil, behind only Don Bradman’s 404 not out for Australia against England at Leeds during the 1948 Ashes.
A unique streak
The English cricket team has made history by being the first in Test cricket history to successfully chase 250+ targets on four consecutive attempts.
England scored 296 at Headingley, 299 at Trent Bridge, and 277 at Lord’s in triumphs over New Zealand in the previous month before chasing 378 against India at Edgbaston.
Australia’s highest string of 250-plus chases lasted three games, against South Africa twice and Bangladesh in 2006, and against England, South Africa, and West Indies between 1948 and 1951.
Four of England’s top 14 successful chases in their 145-year Test history have occurred in the last 30 days, thanks to their current streak.
In these four chases, they have scored a total of 1252 runs while losing a total of 16 wickets in the fourth innings, which is traditionally the most difficult innings to bat in when participating in Tests.
These results are even more impressive when one considers that England began their home season having won only one of their previous 17 Tests and was last in the ICC World Test Championship standings one month ago.
England’s new coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes introduced an aggressive intent and fearless mindset known as “BazBall” to the team’s locker room, which contributed to a dramatic turnaround in results.
Architect of chases
Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow are two of the main reasons England has been so successful recently.
Root batted 142 and Bairstow 114 in an undefeated chase against India in Birmingham’s historic match.
Prior to Root’s 115 not out against New Zealand at Lord’s in the same series last month, Bairstow made 136 in the chase at Nottingham.
To my knowledge, this is the first time in the history of Test cricket that a side has scored four hundred in the last innings of a match.
Bairstow’s purple patch
After nine years of trying and mostly failing to impress in the Test arena, Jonny Bairstow is currently enjoying the best form of his life.
Bairstow has scored 589 runs in his previous 5 innings, which is 10.88 percent of his total Test runs (5415) across a 10-year, 87-Test career.
The Yorkshireman has equaled his career total of centuries he had hit in his first 79 Tests with six centuries in just eight games this year.
Only Root in 2021, Michael Vaughan in 2002, and Denis Compton in 1947 have had as many centuries as Bairstow has in a single English calendar year.
The 32-year-old batsman became the first English player to reach two hundred in a Test since Andrew Strauss against India in Chennai in 2008.
Bairstow has the most runs (994) and the second-most sixes (18) in all of Test cricket in 2022, behind only skipper Ben Stokes (19).
India caught off guard
By the completion of England’s first innings, India had a commanding 132-run advantage.
Since they had never before lost a Test after taking a lead of 100 or more runs while batting first, it was difficult to conceive that they would lose from that position. When India had a lead of 100 runs or more entering the last innings of a Test, they had a 58-0-2 record.
India’s first innings score of 416 was a significant improvement from their early 98/5 deficit due to centuries from Rishabh Pant (146) and Ravindra Jadeja (104).
Pant’s century off 89 balls was faster than MS Dhoni’s century off 93 balls against Pakistan in Faisalabad in 2006, making it the fastest by an Indian keeper in Test cricket.
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